As a self-admitted Lamp Tramp, I tend to pick up interesting or "with potential" lamps that need updated lampshades. However, If you've ever found that perfect, vintage lamp, you also know it can be disheartening to properly fit it with a new shade. Lamps dating back to the 1950s and 60s tend to have very large shades - sizes which nearly require a custom order to duplicate. Of course, you can save some greenbacks by recovering an existing shade. A year or so back, my sister and I recovered the tall, drum shade that came with her antique store-find.

If you're down with such a DIY project - here's a good tutorial

thanks, Liz

If lamps are sans shades, though, it's up to you to turn that special snag into a showstopper. My recent purchase of a set of brass lamps is taking me to the proverbial drawing board in terms of finding the right, new shade.

I'm not sure what shape or color of shade I'll decide on, but I'll definitely be taking into account a few standard guidelines on getting size and scale of a lampshade correct.
In General:

Lampshade height should be about 3/4 the height of the base.

The bottom of the shade should be wider than the widest part of the base.

Shade width should approximately equal the height from bottom of base to socket

So, armed with my measurements, here's a few options I came up with for my brass lamps